A group of 8 vehicles and 16 adult men set off on Wednesday 27th April 2011, from Pipers Pub in Uitzicht, to visit and transport goodies for the kids at Witbank Primary School, just west of the little town of Pofadder. A Land Cruiser left the day before, coming all the way from Mussina, Limpopo.

There are about 30 families living in Witbank, in an array of different structures. The school, Witbank Primary, positioned south of the settlement, does not even have a name on its wall. It is headed up by a husband and wife team, from Pella some 70 kilometres away, who has taken up the positions of headmaster and teacher. There are 28 pupils from Grade R to Grade 5.
We decided a few weeks prior, to give something back to that community, who would have lost their farming areas in the floods. They are sustenance farmers, whose crops were flooded during the Gariep flooding its banks in April.

We had many sponsors, who gave, all in all, a complete school outfit for the 28 children. Included were that each pupil would receive a starter pack consisting of a pencil case with pen, pencil, ruler and eraser and including a water bottle. Two netball posts, two sets of different colored bibs for soccer or netball, balls for various sports and pumps to keep them in good condition. There were boxes of exercise books and other stationary, including /t shirts and bags of other clothing. This all had to be transported to Witbank.

We travelled on our first day to Verneukpan, a distance of over 600km and camped a few kilometers from the actual Verneukpan, where all the land speed records are driven. That night the last vehicle to join our convoy, from Mussina arrived. Our convoy was now complete. We were now 9 fully equipped off road vehicles. During the night the temperature dropped to minus 7deg C. We were all dressed like Eskimos the next morning while drinking coffee and dunking rusks. Our visit to the pan that morning was disappointing, as the gate to the pan was locked.

A Very Cold Verneukpan!!

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